Being a big fan of Steampunk and Batman, I discovered that a comic named 'Gotham by Gaslight' existed that introduced a goggle wearing Batman and was set in the 19th century (1899). Therefore, loving his design I decided to draw him using the 3D character model from the 'Batman: Gotham by Gaslight' game that was sadly cancelled.
He took about an hour, maybe an hour and a half to draw.
I'm glad I decided not to make his outfit completely black, as I feel the amount of shading I used helps convey that darkness without detracting from the finer details. Thus why I didn't include much shading around his exposed face.
Perhaps because of my love for Steampunk, I noticed after completing the drawing, that the materiel looks very shiny, almost metallic.This further shows in his reflective lenses which I am quite please with as I used references online to get them just right.
I then heard that my friend Mali was asking his friends for commissions for portraits of him to be drawn as if he was apart of existing franchises. Therefore, wanting to help a friend and continue practicing my art, I decided to help by choosing to draw him as a 'Hunger Games' tribute.
First of all I decided to take some pictures of myself in order to have a point of reference for the perspective.
Originally I wanted to draw him from the victim's perspective with one of his hands reaching towards them and the other readying a knife.
It was just as well as I tried this one first as, although I really wanted to draw this shot, I unfortunately didn't have either the confidence or skill to draw this rather tricky perspective and therefore tried another.
For the second pose, I went for an easier to accomplish close up shot of his hand holding his knife with him looking down at his victim. I felt this pose to be better as, although not as engaging as the other one, the impact would still be there, especially if I were to include a hand reaching out from underneath as if to defend from the fatal blow.
When it came to drawing the image, I found that by trying to include his head, arm and knife I wasn't able to include the victim's hand. However, I found this to be for the better as, not only did this provide a better close up, but it also allowed me to give him emotion.
I decided to have him face the viewer and made him look as if he had just lost it in the games e.g. spent days awake and therefore killing just became another chore for him. Thus I was trying to make his eyes look cold and dead inside, thus providing some sort of sympathy. However, my folks thought he looked more like a maniac. Though I suppose that may have been a subconscious thing from me as Mali tends to stick to rather crazy characters in the 'Dungeons and Dragons' games we play.
It took about two hours to complete and includes not only shading for his darker skin tone and body hair, but also for his fuzzy hair and reflective knife. I would have loved to have something reflect on the knife, but alas my skills aren't that good yet and I didn't want to ruin what I already had achieved.
The "May the odds be ever in your favor" in the background was added to further establish that he is a tribute in the 'Hunger Games'.
Overall, I am very pleased with my drawings and especially the shading. Therefore, I am looking forward to building on these newly learned skills when I return to university. I can only hope that one day I will master realistic beings and proportions.
Also on a side note, my friend Mali thought the picture was "Brilliant" and thus now his new Facebook cover photo. Therefore I must be doing something right afterall, or is he just being kind? ;)
Harvard Referencing:
- https://forums.station.sony.com/dcuo/index.php?threads/dlc7-new-gear-styles.9481/page-12
